


Ascendance

by IAmFraulein



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age Inquisition - Fandom
Genre: F/M, Fluff and Angst, Modern Girl in Thedas, Sexual Tension, Slow Build, Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-10-10
Updated: 2015-10-10
Packaged: 2018-04-25 15:20:13
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,288
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4966033
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IAmFraulein/pseuds/IAmFraulein
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Thrown into another world very much different from her own, she is guided by precognitive visions by someone who claims to be a deity. It's her very chance to redeem herself — her very own chance to give life to the one she had lost because of her one grave mistake.</p><p>But could she really save a world already on its own path to chaos, and assist the very sole savior in doing so? It doesn't help that she had to be secretive of herself and hide whatever she knew; even if she was forming new ever-lasting friendships along the way despite that wasn't the initial plan. Not only that but she had to keep herself cautious, especially when she had one observant pair of eyes watching her with a knowing glint within them.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ascendance

Even until now, she couldn’t quite comprehend everything; much less understand fully on what was going on.

In less than a day, she had found her life altered in such a strange way in where she figured this could only happen to fictional characters within a fairytale. Or perhaps something in like a very imaginative dream where dreamers could only yearn. And yet here she was in a surrounding very much too real.

The sounds were absolutely real. The view which came to her vision was absolutely real. Even the ground she stood upon was very much real like everything else surrounding her. And yet, she still want to believe she was dreaming.

Sadly, that couldn’t be the case.

Recalling of the vivid memories within her head, she remembered every single detail like it was a nightmare to begin with. How sad it was that she never ever thought that this nightmare could truly become a reality.

It all started with her waking up in the morning like any usual day. In the life she was so familiar ever since she was born, her given name was Rachel — quite a common Catholic name, for sure. Even then, she had cherished the name and appreciated her parents giving her such a lovely name, regardless.

She was the oldest within the Chinese family of hers, which went by the surname of Lee. Being the oldest of two siblings — a brother who was two years younger by the name of Joshua, and her youngest sister, Rosaline who was ten years younger than her. Her parents worked in more than decent occupations, with her father working as a successful businessman and her mother, working as a professor in a rather prestigious university.

The neighbourhood they lived in was a rather nice one — especially when they were living in Hong Kong out of all places. Living in a rather comfortable apartment was a privilege within the parts, and especially with the quite ample size they had. Nevertheless, Rachel had lived within the familiar parts for almost her entire life.  
It was only this very day did everything changed, and it all started with a huge argument she had with her parents. And truly, it was always about the similar issue — her wanting her own future, in her own choice.

Unlike what her parents had wanted, Rachel wanted to pursue the life of arts and music. Her parents, however, disagreed — being the very much typical Asian parents they were. Still, she decided to leave the very home she once knew to pursue her very passion — even if it meant sacrificing the very safety net of her parents’ finance. By the age of twenty-six however, Rachel was pretty much an adult of her own anyways.

How she wished Rosaline didn’t follow her in her very car, hoping she could persuade her big sister from leaving the family all-together.

How she wished that she wasn’t driving recklessly like she had done with the damn car, especially when she had tears running down from her eyes.

How she wished she hadn’t taken the swift swivel of the wheel to dodge a large truck on the road, but only to go off the side of it and to crash into another car.

Once she regained her sight, she could only see red through her eyes and then feel pain searing everywhere through her body. But that was the least of her worries. Not the pain. Not that she couldn’t move her body whatsover. Not that she had noticed on how the car she was in had almost became so dismantled and crushed with her inside.

It was the very passenger next to her. Her dearest youngest sister, bleeding profusely from her open wounds with her body looking in such a mess but even more, she was unmoving. She tried calling out to her sibling, trying to reach out to her despite noticing one very thing. Her eyes were lifeless.

It soon dawned onto her. Her very own baby sister. Her one family member who had loved her unconditionally, just like Rachel had for her ever since she was born. They were the closest, and Rachel had always been so protective over her as her eldest sister.

And now, Rosaline was _dead_. She _killed_ her.

She wanted to release an anguished cry from her throat but all what came was a pathetic sob, which caused only more agony to shoot throughout her body. The pain numbing her senses was nothing compared to the very emotional pain she brought herself upon. Even then, she couldn't keep her eyelids open and found herself falling deep into darkness.

That was what she hoped for, until a voice sounded and demanded for her eyes to reopen once again. "She was very young, wasn't she?"

She flung her eyelids open but soon regretted the very decision as she noticed on how she was surrounded by a bright light. As the light soon dimmed down to nothing, Rachel soon realized something very strange. She noticed on how was not at the accident anymore but rather in a whole different place alltogether. And really, she couldn’t quite describe it without plainly saying — she was in a white room. In fact, she noticed on how plain white the whole room was to where she couldn’t really differentiate where the walls were located and where they met with the ceiling.

By the time she turned herself around, she soon was greeted with the sight of another person within the strange room. And even stranger woman who was dressed in very odd clothing, akin to something like some dark robes with colourful designs though she added with intricate details of trinkets hanging from her oversized sleeves. It wasn’t just the clothes she wore that attracted her attention, however. It was her whole features as well, especially from her very silvery hair and to her very unnatural pair of eyes which seemed to radiate prismatic colours within her irises. Even then, there was some sort of ethereal radiance emitting from her despite Rachel being dubious of the whole situation.

The young woman could only stare. This had to be a dream. It just had to be.

“Don’t be alarmed, Rachel,” the strange female spoke, alarming the other woman but she waved with her hand in hopes to further silent her, “My name is Salina and I heard your anguish.”

“My anguish?” Rachel replied, looking very confused on what was going on. It only took her a moment to realize on what Salina had meant and quickly, a jab of guilt along with despair caused her to bring her hands to cover her face. “.. Am I dead? Is.. Rosaline.. Oh dear God.”

“Rosaline is dead, I’m afraid. You.. are dying, but..” The odd woman paused momentarily, lifting one hand of hers to face her palm directed to Rachel for a moment, “.. But I have great powers. And.. I can help you.”

“Help me? How?”

“I can bring Rosaline back to life.”

This caused Rachel to look up finally. “.. You can’t do that,” the young woman sounded skeptical, “.. This is a dream or.. I don’t even know. I must be in _hell_ right now for all I know.”

“I’m very much real as you are,” Salina responded, a kind smile forming on her lips despite Rachel’s comment, “I understand that it’s very hard to believe but unfortunately, we don’t have much time. Like I said, you _are_ dying.”

A jolt of pain rushed through the Asian woman's body, causing an agonized cry to tear out from between her lips as she fell onto her knees. The one named Salina came forward, just as Rachel clutched her torso with her arms in hopes to lessen the pain. ".. You can feel the pain, can you? This is very much real as it could get.."

".. Okay, let's just say you really do have powers. Let's.. say you can really bring my sister back to life. There's definitely a catch to this, isn't there?" Rachel spat the words out between labored breaths, not even hiding her doubt despite the agonizing pain cutting through her. ".. If you have to take my life to replace hers, just _take_ it. I'll do _anything_."

"Not quite, my dear," Salina responded, still emitting kindness despite Rachel's annoyance, "But you're right about one thing. You definitely have to do something for me, firstly."

Rachel kept herself silent, allowing for the strange woman to continue, "I'll try to keep this short.. There are different worlds other than yours, and you can frankly tell, I'm from an unlikely world than yours. There is a world which needs sheer guidance, and I think you shall be the perfect candidate to do so."

".. What? _Why?_ "

"You'll see." That dubious answer by Salina wasn't convincing. "I promise I'll help you whenever I can.. You will never be alone. Once your task is done and the world is safe, you may return to your own world and you'll see your sister alive and well. That.. I can promise you."

Without needing to hear Rachel's confirmation, Salina soon stepped closer to her but only to place both her hands upon Rachel's cheeks in a gentle grasp. Despite the surprising contact, Rachel never flinched from the touch. Not when a comfortable warmth began to permeate from the woman's hands and easing the suffering pain within her body. Even more was how she felt some sort of tingling within her head. She wasn't certain on what the woman was trying to do, but for some reason, her eyelids closed over her dark eyes as unconsciousness begin to overtake her.

".. For what its worth? I'm terribly sorry for your loss." The tone within the ethereal woman's voice had a hint of guilt mixed with sorrow along with sympathy. She added, "And I'm even more sorry for what you have to do."

Even then, Rachel couldn't hear her. Deep into consuming darkness, she allowed for her body to be enveloped by the cold grips of it to where she could feel the icy prickling across her skin. It only lasted for a moment, however, and by the next second, sounds begin to fill her ears. She couldn't ignore the loud noises despite wanting to, and by the time she reopened her eyes again, she noticed she was in a very vastly different environment.

Chirping of birds filled her ears along with other nature sounds as she noticed she was in an unknown grassy field. Within a distance, she noted the sight of tall trees which led into a small forest from what she could see. She even noticed some animals, which she figured were rams lazily grazing at the grass near the trees. Nevertheless, the whole scene reminded her on what could had been a perfect picture of the landscape of New Zealand — if that was truly the case. What made her finally decided that she wasn't in New Zealand was when a small group of people came to her direction, looking rather confused by her sole appearance. The clothes they wore reminded her of something of medieval times, and they just had to wield pitchforks along with swords and the likes.

Yes, definitely a welcoming party.

"She's definitely a demon! Don't be fooled by her appearance!"

"We saw her fall out from one of those holes in the sky! For sure she's one of those monsters!"

"Look at her! She's all covered in blood!"

That very last comment caught her attention and she glanced down at herself to see that they were right. Though she noticed one very peculiar thing — this wasn't her clothes. In fact, she noticed on how she was dressed in something akin to a light armor over a tunic, from what she could see. Was the blood hers, or perhaps someone else's?

".. She's just a harmless, confused elf. If she was truly a demon, she would had attack us by now."

Wait, an _elf_?

Quickly, she shot a hand up to her ears and only to feel the softly pointed tip of her elven ears to confirm on the statement. Her eyes widened at sheer revelation as her heart sank further.

_Holy fucking hell, I'm really an elf. What the holy fuck is this?!_

One of them came nearer to her, though cautiously but nevertheless, voiced out his question to her. "Do you have a name, stranger? Do you know anything. and on why you came from one of those... rifts?"

_Name. Right. Name._

She knew she couldn't truly reveal her real name to them, especially figuring that she couldn't quite explain on where she came from. Then again, she figured that if she had explained everything, they might had deemed her insane or dub her as a witch to where they might burn her on a stake by then. She had to be careful with her approach, that was for sure. Which was why she decided to use a name which was somewhat like a nickname given by her friends, for some different reasons.

".. Pandora. My name is Pandora." At the very least, her voice sounded similar. ".. I don't know how I came here. And I don't understand what you mean about.. rifts."

Suspicious looks were given to her, but however, the man came closer to only extend a hand out to her. He seemed convinced that she was harmless, which was a relief to her, "I'm Bron.. We're sorry for scaring you like this. It seems that, maybe you either suffering from some memory losses or.. you're not up to date on what was going on. But there is a safe place where you can stay for the meantime."

And this was where it all began.

**Author's Note:**

> Firstly, thanks to all the readers who decided to take their time to read this story of mine. In all truth, this is actually got to be the first fanfiction I ever written in my entire life. After reading all the fanfictions after really getting into Dragon Age Inquisition, I decided I wanted to contribute as well.
> 
> I'm hoping to write more, and even to write some fluff one-shots especially for my current obsession of Solas x Lavellan. For now though, I really appreciate any feedbacks and kudos. Seriously, if I get any, I would be damn surprised but still be very grateful, nonetheless. I just hope you'll enjoy the story!


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